i've been counting down since last Dec 26 ... are you ready? me neither!!

Monday, December 17, 2007

i have a long list of favorite Christmas Stories ... they range from 'Twas the night before Christmas and 'Santa Claus the world's number one toy expert' to Christmas Day in the morning and Luke 2. Somewhere in the middle i always read this one about Wallace Purling.

For years now whenever Christams pageants are talked about in a certain little town in the Midwest, someone is sure to mention the name of Wallace Purling. Wally's performance in one annual production of the Nativity Play has slipped into the realm of legend. But the old timers who were in the audience that night never tire of recalling exactly what happened.

Wally was nine that year and in the second grade, though he should have been in the fourth. Most people in the town knew that he had difficulty in keeping up. He was big and clumsy, slow in movement and mind. Still, Wally was liked by the other children in his class, all of whom were smaller than he, though the boys had trouble hiding their irritation when Wally would ask to play ball with them or any game, for that matter, in which winning was important.

Most often they'd find a way to keep him out, but Wally would hang around anyway - not sulking, just hoping. He was always a helpful boy, a willing and smiling one, and the natural protector, paradoxically, of the underdog. Sometimes if the older boys chased the younger ones away, it would always be Wally who'd say, "Can't they stay? They're no bother."

Wally fancied the idea of being a shepherd with a flute in the Christmas pageant that year, but the play's director, Miss Lambard, assigned him to a more important role. After all, she reasoned, the Innkeeper did not have too many lines, and Wally's size would make his refusal of lodging to Joseph more forceful.

And so it happened that the usual large, partisan audience gathered for the town's yearly extravaganza of crooks and creches, of beards, crowns, halos and a whole stageful of squeaky voices. No one on stage or off was more caught up in the magic of the night than Wallace Purling. They said later that he stood in the wings and watched the performace with such fascination that from time to time Miss Lambard had to make sure he did not wander onstage before his cue.

Then came the time when Joseph appeared, slowly, tenderly guiding Mary to the door of the inn. Joseph knocked hard on the wooden door set into the painted backdrop. Wally the Innkeeper was there, waiting.

"What do you want?" Wally said, swinging the door open with a brusque gesture.

"Sir we have asked everywhere in vain. We have traveled far and we are very weary."

"There is no room in this inn for you." Wally looked properly stern.

"Please good innkeeper, this is my wife Mary. She is heavy with child and needs a place to rest. Surely you must have some small corner for her. She is so tired."

Now for the first time, the Innkeeper relaxed his stiff stance and looked down at Mary. With that, there was a long pause, long enough to make the audience a bit tense with embarrassment.

"No! Be gone!" the prompter whipsered from the wings.

"No!" Wally repeated automatically. "Be gone!"

Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary, and Mary laid her head upon her husband's shoulder and the two of them started to move away. The Innkeeper did not return inside the inn, however. Wally stood there in the doorway watching the forlorn couple. His mouth was open, his brow creased with concern, and his eyes filling unmistakably with tears.

That one is SO great. I'm not pregnant and not so overly emotional at the moment, but I'm crying too :) How sweet the message that we should ALL be saying at all times of the year! I love all Christmas stories, one of mine is Polar Express...it has deeper meaning ya know! and I love the spin that Ardeth Kapp told of her niece or nephew asking "can I believe for just one more year". The full story is in her book "The Joy of Believing"..just awesome! anyway...thanks

celebration central

my greatest blessings

ie: chaos creators

must remind myself

"So frequently we mistakenly believe that our children need more things, when in reality their silent pleadings are simply for more of our time." Thomas S. Monson

"There is no other resource to compare with prayer. To think that each of us may approach our Father in Heaven . . . for individual help and guidance, for strength and faith, is a miracle in and of itself." President Gordon B. Hinckley

"Our friends should be companions who inspire us, who help us rise to our best." Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin

"Often we do not know what we can endure until after a trial of our faith." Elder Robert D. Hales

"You and I should count our blessings, but we should also make them count!" Elder Neal A. Maxwell

“When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.” President Ezra Taft Benson